Interview With Author Annette Naber Pt. 2

In Part 1 of this story, we spoke with Highland resident Annette Naber, who has just published her first book, “Seasons of a Wild Life”. I asked her what she hoped people would take away from the book after reading it.

“Basically, what I’m doing with my book and each chapter, at the end of each chapter, there are several journaling questions that hark back to the themes in that chapter, so people can really dive deeply into their own personal lives, their own personal connection with nature, and how they are being in wherever they are, even if they live in a city, to explore that eco space that they are in. So really, an invitation for people to explore the space they live in, wherever that may be – urban, suburban, rural – it doesn’t matter. There’s nature to be found everywhere.”

She talked about the writing and publishing processes.

“I think it shifts according to where you are at in the book writing process. At first, I think I was just gathering ideas and I was brainstorming and I was journaling, and I was gathering up different vignettes that I had written over the years to bring them in and evaluate them. And ultimately, it boils down to putting yourself in a chair in front of the computer for an hour or two each day, each and every day, and get the work done, whether you feel like it or not.”

“I was considering all the different options. There are basically three main options – one is you get published through one of the main publishers or perhaps more of a smaller, independent, small publishing company; a hybrid publisher; or independently publishing yourself. And I explored all the different options and then finally decided to go with a hybrid publisher, which is Bold Story Press out of Chevy Chase, Maryland.”

“After they accepted my manuscript, they, of course, had to review it first, I worked with a developmental editor, who basically made sure that all of the pieces in the book fit together. And then I worked with a copy editor, which is basically dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s, and I mean all the finest little things, like punctuation, checking all the end notes, the bibliography, permissions from people that I quoted, all the nitty gritty. And then it was farmed out to somebody out on the West Coast who actually typeset it, and that was a little bit different for the hard cover versus the paperback. And then finally, it was sent to the printers, and now I have it in hand.”

And where can other get their hands on it?

“Locally here in Highland, you can get it at The Recorder office. You can get it at The Gallery at The Highland Center. I will be at Wintertide on December 7th, and we’ll have a table set up. There will also be a copy at the library. If people want to get it fast, they can order it on Amazon. Or if you don’t want to channel your money to Mr. Bezos, you can order it from bookshop.org.”

It is also available at her website, annettenaber.com.

Lastly, I asked her what it felt like to actually hold the fruits of her labor.

“It felt like relief, to be honest. It’s like ‘Finally, it’s here, something I’ve been working on for four years now’. And also a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction and a little bit of pride in there too – and it was a bucket list item that I finally accomplished after 40 plus years.”